Purple-haired, tattooed, Marie Curie loving neuroscientist Bee Königswasser is the polar opposite of her grad school nemesis: uptight, Bee-hating Levi Ward.  So of course, five years after they last saw each other, they’re co-leading a life-changing project for NASA.  Levi clearly still detests Bee, and it seems like he’s determined to thwart her work.  But the more time they spend together, the clearer it becomes that it’s someone else working against them, and maybe their mutual dislike is actually mutual… something else.

I was lukewarm on The Love Hypothesis, and kind of expected to be lukewarm on this one too.  Nope.  Sucked me in and stole my heart.  A lot of my issues with TLH are worked out here: it’s not (to my knowledge) Reylo fanfic where the hero shares the actor’s first name, we get a little more backstory on Levi, the sexism in academia is worked in better, and the spice level is upped.  There’s also a fairly predictable (in a good way) little mystery woven in, which is super fun.

The first 25% of the book sets you up to really mistrust the hero, and even though I knew I’d get my HEA, I was really worried that it would lean a little too undermine-y for me.  No worries on that front, Levi has Bee’s back at every turn.  The whole thing hinges on a few miscommunications, which I think some readers will ding it for, but they seemed relatively believable to me.  It was a very enjoyable four hours of watching one absolute brussel sprout realize another brussel sprout has been head over heels for her for years.  

CW:

sexism in academia, death of parents (off-page), death of a friend (remembered, off-page), guns, infidelity

 

Thank you Berkley and NetGalley for the ARC!